The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The 1854 Bancroft Hotel Building -- No. 922 Broadway

Around 1854, as Broadway just south of the fashionable Union
Square filled with refined residences, Jacob Cram build a row of Italianate
brick rowhouses on the thoroughfare's east side between 21st and 22nd
street.If Cram’s attractive building
at the corner, No. 922, was ever intended as a single-family home it did not
remain one for long.

In 1855 George S. Park’s “Select School for Boys” (formerly
D. P. Baron’s) occupied the upper floors.The well-heeled students entered through a door on 21st
Street.As the school prepared to
re-open on September 8, 1856, it advertised in the New York Daily Tribune.“There are three Departments—Senior, Middle,
and Primary, with gymnastic Apparatus for physical training.Circulars may be had at Lockwood’s Bookstore
or at the School-rooms.”

The students here were schooled in “Classical, French,
English and Primary School,” according to its advertisement the following
year.“Pupils are prepared for college
or the counting-room.Those between the
ages of six and ten are under the care of a female teacher.The Gymnasium is open to all departments.”

In the meantime the street level was home to the showroom of
Colt & Whittelsey.The firm sold chandeliers
and gas fixtures to its high-end clientele.On October 4, 1856 the store advertised a new shipment.“Fifty New-Pattern Chandeliers—Never before
offered in any market, will be OPENED THIS WEEK, for the inspection of
purchasers.”

Additionally, homeowners could purchase weather stripping
here.An advertisement a month later
urged “Every Dwelling-House should have Mathewson’s Patent Weather Strip on its
Doors and French Windows.”These were
described as “a perfect prevention to the ingress of wind, dust and rain,
besides being highly ornamental.Can be
applied to any door or window in a few minutes, at a trifling expense.”

In addition to lighting fixtures the firm supplied brackets
and related chandelier parts and provided installation and customization of the
devices.At a time when most chandeliers
were fueled by whale oil, the Colt & Whittelsey offered up-to-the-minute gas
fixtures as well.

George s. Park’s school for boys was gone by 1859 and the
upper floors of No. 922 had been converted to the Bancroft House hotel.Run by
M. L. and A. W. Bordwell, it had previously been located just a block to the
south at No. 906 Broadway.

Julia Fitzgerald was a chambermaid here in December 20 of
that year when a friend was invited to a ball.Apparently her friend had nothing appropriate to wear, so Julia “borrowed”
jewelry—a gold bracelet and breastpin—from the room of a guest, Mr.
Duscom.She also borrowed $25.

Since she had not bothered to inform Mr. Duscom of the loan,
he complained and the chambermaid was detained by Judge Quackenbush.On January 12 she appeared in court before
Judge Russell. The New York Times
reported that “As she made it appear probably that she had only used it as a
personal decoration for a party to which she was invited, judgment was
suspended.”

Her employment at the Bancroft House was suspended as well.

The fish-scale slate shingles survive after nearly a century and a half .

Exactly one year later South Carolina seceded from the Union
and the first storm clouds that would become the Civil War formed.By 1864 the nation was embroiled in a bloody
conflict.On Saturday October 1 of that
year a group of “War Democrats” chaired by Peter Cooper met at the Bancroft
House.

The delegates agreed on “no surrender of flag or principles
to rebels in arms against the country, and no armistice that would give the
traitors any advantages over the soldiers of the Union,” reported The Times.

Three days later the group met here again.It resolved to appoint a Committee of War
Democrats to work with the War Democratic State Committee of the State of New
York, and the War Democratic General Committee of the City and County of New
York to make arrangements for a “mass Convention of the War Democracy in the
City of New York” prior to the upcoming election.The committee was composed of the leading
names of the city, including A. T. Stewart, George Butler, and Edwards
Pierrepont.

The New York Times noted that “After some patriotic
speeches, during which much enthusiasm was evinced, the meeting adjourned.”

Not all of the guests at the Bancroft House were
travelers.Seth Adams had lived here two
years when in January 1865 he was sued by Andrew j. Millspaugh for “alleged
criminal intercourse with his wife.”

T. Redding was a long-term resident here as well.In January 1866 he wrote to the Editor of The
New York Times in support of the proposed mass transit—subways and elevated
trains.

Regarding the “tunnel and aerial roads” he wrote “I know,
Mr. Editor, there is no room for any argument as to the great benefit that
would accrue from this enterprise.An
axiom needs no investigation.It is a
fixed fact that one or both roads must be
built, and that soon.”The
passionate Mr. Redding plead, “In the name of suffering pedestrians, let it be
done.”

Despite its proximity to the exclusive Fifth Avenue Hotel on
23rd Street and Broadway, the Bancroft House remained popular as a
respectable and more affordable hotel.Room rates were advertised at 50 cents, 75
cents and $1 per day with “weekly reductions.”

The tony American Jockey Club rented long-term rooms at the
Bancroft in the Spring of 1868 for its “subscription rooms.”The club met here on June 4 to discuss the
new betting procedures based on the London Tattersalls.In stilted Victorian prose the secretary
noted “The obligations contracted there, although not subject to enforcement in
the courts of law, have always been rigidly kept, even at the cost or utter
ruin to the unfortunate backer of the beaten horses.The only bond has been the word of honor of
gentlemen, and the wreck of many a princely fortune and the forced expatriation
of many a proud nobleman, have born testimony to the fidelity with which the
bond has been paid.”

Not everything went perfectly at the Bancroft House.Only a month earlier Mrs. Margaret Butler
returned to her rooms here around 2:00 in the afternoon of May 27.She noticed that the door, which she had
locked, was forced open. Hearing her
at the door, two men rushed past and darted down the stairs.

The New York Times reported “Sensing the true state of the
case, she followed them, crying ‘Stop thief!’”A police officer apprehended one of the thieves, William Wall, whom the
newspaper called “a man of respectable and sedate appearance.”Wall had on him burglar tools including four
skeleton keys, a pair of nippers and a jimmy.The other man “mysteriously disappeared.”

In the early 1880s Amos R. Eno owned the property.Eno was a major player in the real estate
field and also held title to the strange triangular plot of land just across
Broadway which would later become the site of the Flatiron Building.In
June 1884 he sold No. 922 to Charles W. Burgoyne, a “provision dealer,” for
$138,750 who established his store on the ground floor.By now it had gained a handsome mansard roof,
adding an entire floor, and had been extended back along 21st Street
from 65 feet to 97 feet.

A bizarre string of suicides in the
hotel occurred over the next two decades.In May
1891 Thomas Atchison, just 21 years old, shot himself in the temple with a
revolver.He was a bellboy at the Hotel
Clarendon.On August 24, 1895 61-year
old Ferdinand William Herrman, who had lost his fortune and was despondent over
the financial troubles to his family, took poison.Six years later on December 12, Frank
Neumann drank carbolic acid here.The
30-year old lived in Newark, New Jersey.And on July 30, news correspondent Joseph B. McShane filled his room
with gas and died for no apparent reason.

A ghastly murder-suicide occurred on July 30, 1887.John E. Emmerson had been employed as a
porter by the Bancroft House for about five months, but he resigned to work at
the Astor House.The middle-aged man whom the New York Tribune
described as “of surly disposition and unsocial in his relations with other
employees,” kept his rooms on the third floor here, though.

19-year old Charles Greer, who was visiting the United
States from Ireland, had run out of money and while waiting for funds to arrive
from home, took a temporary job at the Bancroft House so he would not have to
borrow from friends.It was a fatal
decision.

The Tribune reported that he “was butchered in a most brutal
manner by John E. Emmerson…After killing Greer, Emmerson killed himself.There was absolutely no provocation for the murder
and suicide, and the only explanation of the tragedy was the supposed insanity
of Emmerson.”

On October 26, 1888 Burgoyne received $200 for allowing the
Committee of Democrats and Independents to attach one end of a banner
to the Bancroft House.The banner,
which stretched across 21st Street, read “For President, Grover
Cleveland.For Vice-President, Allen G.
Thurman.For Governor, Warner
Miller.For Clean Government and Ballot
Reform.”Except for the names, nothing
much has changed in a century and a half.

The Sun commented on the imposing banner.“It is made of netting, with the portraits of
the three candidates on canvas attached to the netting.Its workmanship is excellent.It is perhaps the prettiest banner in town.”

Despite the scattered earlier tragedies, the
Bancroft House continued its long run of success.In 1896 the hotel was entirely refurbished
and renovated.It now offered rooms to “gentlemen
only.”

In 1904 the property was owned by a young girl, Ruth Stephenson,
who had inherited it from William W. Stephenson.Her guardian, George G. Stephenson petitioned
the courts on August 22 to raze the venerable Bancroft House and erect a
12-story mercantile building.Stephenson
argued that the annual income was about $20,000—“much less than it should yield
if properly improved.”

Despite his attempts, young Ruth Stephenson stayed in the hotel
business.

In 1909 the building is whitewashed and an American Express office is on the ground floor -- NYPL Collection

For some time American Express ran a branch office from the
ground floor.Then in 1919 Max Haber, who owned
the Delmonico, Waldorf and Columbia restaurants, leased the store and basement
of No. 922 Broadway where he established a restaurant and bakery.The space would remain a restaurant for
decades and in January 1927 the K & B Lunch Company took the lease for 21
years.

Brick panels on the chimney fronts add architectural interest.

By the middle of the century the stretch of Broadway below
23rd Street was a bit dowdy and the once-respectable Bancroft Hotel
was now called the Court Hotel—a little less respectable.

But in 1978 the upper floors were converted to four roomy “Class
A” apartments per floor.Today the
street level has been mostly obliterated.But the distinguished bulk of the hotel and its handsome slate-shingled
mansard is highly unchanged from the days when gentlemen paid $1 for the best
room in the house.